Chapter 18: The Pillar of the Heavens
The discovery in the Perpetual Glaciers had changed everything. The "Gods" were no longer divine mysteries; they were biological parasites—interdimensional entities that the Star-Forge ancestors had labeled "The Celestials." Zen stood in the center of the Abyss, which had now docked permanently over the ruins of the Holy Capital, serving as a massive industrial hub for the new world order.
On the table before him lay the "Zero-Epoch" data. It was clear: the Celestials were approaching. Their fleet, a swarm of energy-harvesting organisms, was less than twenty-four months away from the planet's orbit.
"If we wait for them on the ground, we've already lost," Zen stated, his voice projected through the Neural Link to his council. "They thrive on the mana-saturated atmosphere of this planet. To fight them, we need to meet them in the vacuum of space, where their power is at its weakest."
"But lad," Grim grunted, scratching his beard. "We're builders of stone and steam. Even with that fancy fusion tech, how do we get enough steel and manpower into the clouds without the Empire's levitation crystals?"
"We don't use crystals, Grim," Zen replied, tapping a holographic projection. "We use momentum."
"Initiate Option A: The Orbital Elevator. Project Name: The Sky-Tether."
The Engineering of the Impossible
The concept of an Orbital Elevator was a relic of the Star-Forge era. It required a cable made of a material so strong it could support its own weight over a distance of thirty-six thousand kilometers.
"The carbon-nanotubes we found in the Tundra ship are the key," Zen explained to Elara and the Goblin chemists. "We will use the 'World-Engine' as an anchor. It will provide the tension. We'll build a 'Space-Elevator' starting from the peak of the mountain range we moved to Oros."
"But Architect," Elara interrupted, her silver eyes scanning the physics of the project. "The moment we start building a tether into the sky, the Celestials' scouts will see it. They won't just sit by while we build a ladder to their doorstep."
"Then we build it fast," Zen said. "And we build it armed."
Phase 1: The Nanite Loom
The construction did not use cranes or scaffolds. Zen deployed the 'Nanite-Loom'—a swarm of billions of microscopic robots programmed to weave carbon-nanotubes atom by atom. The Loom started at the base of the mountain and began to grow upward, a shimmering, black needle rising into the clouds.
As the tether reached the stratosphere, the air began to thin. This was where the "Zero-Epoch" technology was most vital. Zen's 'Fusion-Reactors' began to take over, replacing the mana-dependent systems that failed in the low-pressure environment.
"We have reached the Kármán line," Tink-Tink reported from the control room. "The 'Ears' of the Needle are picking up something! Big static! High-frequency mana-chirps!"
"They're here," Zen whispered.
The First Contact: The Celestial Harvesters
High above the planet, three 'Harvester-Scouts' emerged from the void. They were beautiful and terrifying—translucent, jellyfish-like entities the size of skyscrapers, glowing with a sickly, golden light. They didn't use engines; they 'swam' through the mana-flow of the planet's magnetic field.
One of the Harvesters moved toward the rising Sky-Tether. It saw the carbon-fiber cable as a contaminant, a 'dead' thread in its garden. It opened its central aperture, preparing to fire a beam of concentrated mana to dissolve the structure.
"Architect! The Harvester is charging!" Elara screamed.
"Activate the 'Plasma-Sheath'!" Zen commanded.
The Sky-Tether was not just a cable; it was a weapon. Zen had integrated the 'Nuclear Fusion' energy from the Tundra ship into the tether's outer layer. A blindingly bright violet sheath of plasma erupted along the length of the cable, creating a magnetic shield that the Harvester's mana-beam couldn't penetrate.
"Now, the 'God-Killer' Bolt!"
Zen didn't fire a laser. He used the elevator's own rail system. He launched a 'Kinetic Slugs'—a five-ton block of solid tungsten—at three percent of the speed of light, propelled by the electromagnetic coils of the elevator.
WHOOSH!
The tungsten slug, moving with the force of a nuclear bomb but without the fallout, tore through the Harvester's translucent body. The Celestial entity didn't explode; it shattered. Its golden essence, stripped of its physical form, evaporated into the vacuum.
The Price of Progress
The victory was immediate, but the response from the void was a chilling, collective shriek that echoed through every mana-sensitive mind on the planet.
"They're all looking at us now," Elara said, her face pale. "The entire fleet... they've just changed course. They aren't coming to harvest anymore. They're coming to exterminate."
"Let them come," Zen said, his eyes fixed on the data-stream. "We've just proven that 'Gods' can bleed. And if they can bleed, we can build a machine to kill them."
The Rise of the 'Star-City'
With the Harvester destroyed, the Nanite-Loom accelerated. The tether reached its counterweight in geostationary orbit—the 'Aegis Station.' This was no longer just an elevator; it was the foundation of the world's first orbital shipyard.
[New Goal: The Star-Forge — Ship-Building Facility in Orbit]
[New Unit Produced: 'Void-Wasps' — Vacuum-Optimized Combat Drones]
[Level Up: Level 35 — Title: 'Architect of the Void']
Zen looked down at the planet from the Aegis Station. For the first time, he saw the world not as a collection of warring kingdoms, but as a single, fragile blue marble.
"We have eighteen months," Zen said to Grim and Elara, who stood beside him in their pressurized suits. "The elevator is done. Now, we start the 'Star-Forge Protocol'. We aren't just building a shield anymore. We're building a 'Planetary Defense Fleet'."
But even as Zen spoke, he noticed a glitch in the Aegis Station's sensors. A signal was coming from within the planet, not from space.
"Architect," Elara whispered, pointing to the monitor. "The mana-levels in the Holy Capital... they're spiking. But the Emperor is gone. Who is doing this?"
A voice, calm and ancient, hissed through the Neural Link—a voice that sounded like the rustling of dry leaves.
"The Boy-Prince plays with strings in the sky... while the 'Root' beneath him begins to rot. Did you think we were only in the stars, Zen? We are the earth. We are the water. We are the very magic you breathe."
The 'Mana-Parasites' weren't just a fleet in space. They were a virus that had already infected the core of the world.
The Two-Front War
Zen realized the terrifying truth. The Celestials in space were the 'Harvesters,' but the mana-flow on the planet was the 'Incubator.' If he cut off the mana from space with the Dyson-Seal, the 'virus' inside the planet would panic and consume its host—the humanity he was trying to save.
"It's a 'Dead-Man's Switch' on a planetary scale," Zen muttered. "If we kill the gods in the sky, we kill the planet. If we save the planet, the gods in the sky harvest us."
"So... what's the move, Boss?" Tink-Tink asked, his voice trembling.
Zen looked at his multi-wrench, then at the vast, dark void of space, and then down at the glowing, mana-veined world below.
"We don't choose," Zen said, his mind shifting into a higher gear of logic than ever before. "We 'Re-Code'. We're going to treat the planet like a giant computer, and we're going to 'vaccinate' it."